July 18, 2012

St. Paul is planning to redo the Front Skatepark and they're trying not to blow it. Per Witt Siasoco:

Hey all, I have been trying to work with the St. Paul Park and Rec on the redesign of the Front Skatepark. We all know that the public skateparks in the Twin Cities suck, so I am hoping to get more people involved. The Park and Rec created a survey monkey and would like to get skaters feedback.

8 comments:

The first renovation they need to carry out is a taller fence, or resort to a security guard/volunteer to deter the insane lurkage there. I don't need to get mean mugged by a gang of shirtless 8 year-olds who don't even bring skateboards every time I wanna skate a dec public mini.

I filled out the survey and said let the fences be lower or non-existent, because those things are oppressive. Skaters can police skate spots, we need not be afraid of "shirtless 8 year-olds" because, as I can read, you're a grown ass man, and you can tell them to get the fuck out of there. Try it. A security guard at a skatepark is an oxymoron.

I learned how to skate and basically lived at this park for years, i really hope they do it right this time cuz St. Paul has pathetic parks. Also if your worried about shirtless 8 year-olds you should just stay home.

By no means am I an official representative. I'm an just old ass skater. I also coordinate arts programs for the park and rec at Hancock Rec. Because I work with the parks, I was tipped off about the redesign, and was recently asked to be a part of an design advisory focus group. Honestly, I don't know what the "advisory group" is yet, but they said - "The focus group will meet 2-3 times to provide input and share expertise during the skate park design process. Of this group, we may select one or more members to represent the focus group as a member of the Front Skate Park design task force."

Basically I want to make sure that a bunch of little lids don't design a park for us.

They are planning on having 3 community meetings where anyone can show up. I will try get the word out when they announce it, but you should check the front website in the coming months - http://www.stpaul.gov/frontskatepark

I'm not sure what type of budget they are working with, so who knows what the extent of the "re-design" may be.

im 24 yrs old skater. i contacted dave ronzani a month ago letting him know i want to be involved but he never got back to me.

a friend of mine works for Spohn Ranch (he sent me the plans for the Wyoming mn plaza), so im trying to get him more contracts. he contacted the front street people and told me, "The bid for design services already went out. We put in a bid but the refurb budget was pretty small so I don't think it's a good one for us."

so yeah, since that dave guy never got back to me im pretty much in the dark about whats up with it.